


Lockdown

by ClaudiaRain



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humor, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-08 05:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10379535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaudiaRain/pseuds/ClaudiaRain
Summary: Sara and Leonard stop by S.T.A.R. Labs for an errand, but Harry's new security system goes haywire, trapping them inside with Team Flash. Their forced confinement leads to new revelations, not only for them, but for Harry and Caitlin, as well.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For the purpose of this story, Leonard is alive and on the Legends team, however you choose to believe it happened. There is also no "A" or "B" pairing here - this story focuses on both couples equally.
> 
> This is partly inspired by the @ficcingcaptaincanary prompt, “Sara and Len see a non-canon Legends of Flarrowverse pairing that makes them realize they’re in love." (This sort of fits that prompt, but you could equally say Sara and Len cause that realization in another couple themselves.) This is also partly inspired by the recent wonderful stories crazygirlne and Tavyn have written for me - as such, I dedicate this story to both of them. ❤️

Leonard and Sara had picked _the_ worst day to visit S.T.A.R. Labs.

They weren’t even supposed to be there. They’d agreed to stop by at the last minute as a favor to Stein and Palmer, who were trying to devise a new food synthesizer to outfit the Waverider. Gideon couldn’t fabricate everything they needed, but S.T.A.R. Labs kept most the materials in stock.

The promise of better food was the only reason Leonard agreed to run their errand for them…well, that and Lance’s insistence. However, if the other two could upgrade the quality of meals on the Waverider, he’d owe them. Not that he’d tell them he owed them, but he’d file it away for the future.

He and Sara had gone together because they’d been spending the day together already, like usual. By now, he was long past the point of thinking about it too much. It was merely a given that any free time they had was spent with each other (and he wondered if it was as automatic for her as it was for him).

It had been fun to visit Central City, stopping by all his favorite hang-outs with Lance, and visiting his sister, filling her in on some of the crazy things they’d been doing the past few months.

Said fun had ended, though, when they went to S.T.A.R. Labs and Len spotted Allen’s car in the parking lot. Plus, Ramon worked there – _why had he agreed to this again?_

“In and out, Lance,” he warned, as he pulled on the doors, scowling once he realized they were locked. “This isn’t a social visit.”

“If I want to spend an hour or five catching up with _our_ friends, then I will.” Sara spotted a camera up on the wall aimed at them and waved. Shortly after, a buzz sounded, indicating the doors were unlocked for them.

He hadn’t missed her emphasis. “What do you mean by ‘our’?” he needled. “That’s close to an insult.”

“Leonard…”

“You can stay as long as you want,” he said easily, as he followed her inside, “but I reserve the right to ditch you if that happens.”

Her only response was a knowing look that told him she knew that he wouldn’t leave her, and that if he did, he’d be paying for it. Indefinitely.

Sara had a much better memory of this place than he did and led him through a maze of corridors until they hit a large, open room – the cortex, they called it? And it was filled with people. At 1:37 on a Tuesday afternoon. Well, that certainly didn’t surprise him.

He recognized Allen, Iris, her brother (Walton?), and their father, the detective (whom he usually gave a wide berth just by default of his not-so-fantastic interactions with police). Rounding out the group were some of the lab’s actual employees: Harrison Wells, his daughter Jesse, Caitlin Snow, and Cisco Ramon.

“Greetings Team Flash!” he announced, loud and overly cheerful to the point that Sara shot him a suspicious look. (Why did she always think he was planning something? Alright, maybe because he usually was, but still...) “You’re all hard at work…milling about, I see.”

“I’m on an extended lunch break,” Barry said, defensively. “And you’re one to talk. Have you ever held an actual job, Leonard?”

“No, but the way you all have shown me how easy it is to get paid for doing absolutely nothing, I’m thinking maybe I should.”

“Hey, some of us do actual work,” Caitlin said, but the smile playing at her mouth meant his joke was at least appreciated by _someone_.

“You had to bring him?” Cisco was asking Sara, tone more than mildly accusing. “Out of everyone on your ship, you had to bring _him_.”

“Just for your benefit,” Sara sweetly told him.

They’d all worked together to ‘save the world’ (or whatever) a bunch of times by now, and the teams were on relatively friendly terms. However, Leonard had a reputation to maintain, and it also irked most of them when he was annoying, so it was a win-win.

“Why are you two here?” Harrison Wells asked bluntly, though it wasn’t unfriendly.

“We called,” Sara reminded him. When Harry looked at her blankly, she said, “We’re here for Stein and Ray?”

“Ohhhh,” he said, nodding. “That’s…” He half-turned to face Caitlin. “Where did I put the things they wanted?”

“Last I saw, you had a box in your office,” Caitlin said, as he pointed at her, apparently in thanks, and then left. “He has a lot on his mind,” she said, semi-apologetically.

“No worries,” Sara assured. “Not like we’re in any hurry.” She said the last with a half-smirk at Len that had him suddenly wanting to kiss it off her face. How many ways would she inflict injury if he tried, and how long would those injuries last? Now there was a complicated math problem…

He shook off the thoughts and took a seat in one of the empty chairs at the main desk, watching as Sara circled the room to officially greet everyone, even hugging a few of them. He supposed he should join her, but he had no real desire. Besides, she’d drag him into a discussion soon enough (it was one of her favorite things to do), so he’d take advantage of a few quiet moments by himself.

(Obviously, the universe heard that last thought.)

“What’s new, Leonard?” Cisco asked loudly, from his right, and he slowly spun his chair to look at him. “How many times have you had to fix the timeline since we last saw you? Has anything cool in history changed?” A new thought occurred to him. “Have _I_ changed?”

“I don’t remember seeing you here before,” Len told him, carefully keeping his face blank. “Did you start working at S.T.A.R. Labs recently?”

“What? You know who I am. We’ve known each other for years…unfortunately. I even know your sister, from back when…” Cisco’s words slowly faded when he received no recognition from Len.

“Actually, we _did_ have to change something this morning,” Len said slowly, as if he’d just remembered. “Time must not have caught up with me, yet. You know how it takes longer for my team since we’re more removed from the effects?”

“Nah, man… You’re not getting me with this.” Cisco’s voice told another story, though, and that was what kept Len going.

“Seriously. Who are you?” When Cisco merely stared at him with growing horror, Len turned to the rest of the room. “Who is this guy? Why’s he here?”

“What are you talking about?” Barry asked, confused, but if there was something Leonard excelled at, it was not giving anything away. Especially when he’d get such a great pay-off from it.

“Leonard,” Sara sighed, like she just couldn’t _deal_ with him anymore. (Well, that was the usual, too.)

“He said he doesn’t know me.” Cisco had jumped out of his chair and gone over to the others. “You guys know me, right?”

“Yes, we know you, Cisco,” Caitlin reassured.

“Obviously _they_ know you,” Len told him. “When the timeline changed, they remembered you as if you’d always been here. But as of yesterday…who knows where you were?” He shrugged. “I wonder if you even existed at all?”

“What if I didn’t exist at _all_?” Cisco whispered, staring at his hands like he might start fading away before his very own eyes.

“I remember you,” Sara told him, firmly. “You were always here.”

Before Cisco could get too comfortable with that, Leonard nodded. “Yup, Sara usually gets the new memories right before I do. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they hit me, too.”

Cisco glanced between them, not sure who to believe, and that was when Harry returned with a large box and dropped it on the floor near Leonard’s feet with a loud thud and the clang of metal pieces.

“Okay, I guess damage isn’t a concern here?” Len asked.

“It’s fine,” Harry said. “Just don’t spill any water in there. A few of those components are highly reactive with water and might explode.”

“Are you ser–”

“No.”

Leonard took a moment to appreciate someone as deadpan as himself and then Cisco was next to them, anxiety written all over his face.

“Harry, Leonard said I wasn’t here before today. That they changed the timeline and I’m only here because of that! Or maybe I didn’t exist at all before?” It was obvious he wanted reassurance from the older man that what Leonard claimed couldn’t possibly be true.

Harry glanced between the two of them before stopping on Len. “Can you change it back to when we didn’t have him?”

The question surprised a sharp laugh out of Leonard and Cisco threw his hands up in dismay.

“Harry.” Caitlin had overheard, and clearly disapproved, but her censure was for Harrison Wells alone.

Harry actually broke out into a smile, the first Leonard had seen since they’d arrived. “Leonard’s messing with you, Cisco.”

“Damn, I had him right where I wanted him,” Len said, but he was smiling, too. And he really had to watch himself, because the last thing he needed was this group thinking he actually liked spending time with them, or anything equally disturbing.

“You’re a terrible person,” Cisco said to Leonard, then thought better of it and addressed Harry, too: “Both of you.” He turned and walked over to Barry and Iris, probably for comfort.

“How’d you know?” Len asked, wondering if he’d somehow given himself away.

“As someone who’s mastered the art of harassing Cisco when it’s warranted, it wasn’t hard to figure out what you were doing.”

Barry and Iris were now shooting disapproving looks toward Leonard as Cisco continued to complain – Len thought he overheard the words ‘outraged’ and ‘injustice’ coming from their direction.

“I have newfound respect for you, Wells. Working with both Allen and Ramon on a regular basis…” Leonard wasn’t sure if he could ever do it. (Then again, he had to deal with Rip and Palmer, so maybe when it came down to it, they suffered equally.)

“No kidding,” Harry said. “They’re tolerable most of the time, though. And there are other people here who keep me sane.” His eyes strayed to Caitlin, and they lingered.

Leonard noticed because he had the same habit with someone else. “Other people, hmm?”

“One in particular, you could say.”

Leonard wasn’t sure why he cared, even as he heard himself asking, “Does she know that?”

“I’m fairly certain she doesn’t.”

 _Yeah_ , Leonard thought. _My sanity doesn’t know that’s what she is, either_.

Though lately he was beginning to feel like she probably should.

**XXXXXX**

“Your boyfriend almost convinced Cisco that he didn’t exist before today.”

“Tell me about it,” Sara lamented. “I can’t bring him _anywhere_.” Then she stared at Caitlin, as if truly hearing her words for the first time. “Back up – he is not my boyfriend.”

“He’s not?” Caitlin couldn’t hide her surprise, then inwardly cringed. “Sorry,” she said, awkwardly. “I assumed since you came together. And whenever we see you two, you’re…you know.”

“We’re what?” Sara challenged, and though there was levity in the question, Caitlin couldn’t help wondering if the blonde was actually irritated at her wrong assumption.

She decided the safest bet was to feign ignorance. “I don’t know. Um. I don’t know. Forget I said anything!”

“Okay, you do that, and _I’ll_ forget the way you keep stealing glances at your boss over there.”

“He’s not my boss,” Caitlin told her. “Well… I guess he kind of runs the building. And he _does_ have a tendency to order us around –”

“Like, hmm, what’s the word…” Sara snapped her fingers a few times. “Oh, I know – a boss!”

“We’re really more of an ensemble,” Caitlin said. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m simply amused about which part of my statement you chose to deny,” Sara said, lightly smirking. “Not even the slightest argument about the ‘stealing glances’ part?”

“Maybe I was looking over there because…I want to know what Leonard and Harry are discussing,” Caitlin tried to insist. “What could they possibly have in common?”

“It’s beyond me,” Sara admitted, seeming to think about it. “Though they both like getting their way, for sure.”

Caitlin studied them. “Neither are the easiest to get along with, either.”

“Leonard can be sarcastic and demanding and difficult. I’m not sure about Harry –”

“Have you met him?” Caitlin asked dryly, as Sara laughed. “But once you actually get to know him, you see who he really is, that he’d do anything for the people he loves. For strangers, even. That’s what his whole life is about on this team.”

“Yeah,” Sara agreed, slowly. “That sounds remarkably similar to someone I know.”

“For two men who seem so different on the surface, maybe they’re more alike than we thought,” Caitlin allowed. “Harry’s…” She struggled to find the right words. “He’s…”

“I know exactly what you’re trying to say,” Sara assured her, and Caitlin could tell her own near-admission had caused Sara to drop her guard. “I think we feel the same.”

“Really?” Caitlin’s eyes gleamed. “About Harrison Wells?”

Sara burst out laughing at that. “Sure, why not. He’s rich, right?”

“Be warned, I’d have to take Leonard off your hands, then,” Caitlin told her.

“Go ahead, keep him here,” Sara said, lightly. “Save me the hassle of dealing with him for a while.”

Before Caitlin could reply, a loud siren went off that had her jumping, and red lights started flashing – in case anyone missed the alarm.

“What the hell?” Sara asked, as everyone covered their ears until Harry hit a button on the nearest computer and the lights and siren stopped.

“That means the building’s on lockdown,” Caitlin told her. She’d only gone through this before in drills – Harry performed them about once a month and she despised them. Every. Single. Time. So much so, in fact, that now he usually only did them when she was out of the building.

They never lasted long, at least. Whatever assortment of people were present would go around the building to make sure the lockdown had worked like it was supposed to and then they’d lift it.

“It’s not a drill,” Harry was speaking to everyone, but directed the words at Caitlin. “It wasn’t me.”

He had to be telling her because he knew she hated them, and though she’d never told him why, he must have guessed. She wasn’t thrilled about confined spaces that had no way out, even if that ‘space’ was as large as S.T.A.R. Labs. It reminded her too much of being held prisoner, back when she’d been on another Earth and terrified she’d never see anyone she loved again.

It took a few moments for Harry’s statement to register. If _he_ wasn’t responsible, that meant… Caitlin’s eyes widened and a chill ran down her spine.

“It’s only supposed to go off when there’s a major threat to the building,” Cisco was explaining to the others, as he checked the readings from outside. “Either a natural disaster or a meta-human trying to get in. But my meta-human alert app didn’t go off and I’m not seeing anything on our scans.”

There was a tense silence as he kept looking, with Harry joining in, and a few minutes later they both shrugged.

“I’m not seeing any threats, either,” Harry confirmed. “Though we’ve had some electrical issues since a minor earthquake last week. Maybe it affected the system and set it off.” He turned to Cisco. “You ran those diagnostics, right? Did they show anything?”

“I was…getting to it,” Cisco hedged, as Harry rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Other stuff came up! Important stuff! Remember how we almost died three times last week?”

“Yeah, well, you’re still here, Ramon. And now the lockdown’s been activated for no reason, apparently.”

“Don’t blame me for that,” Cisco said, irritated. “It’s _your_ security system.”

“Which you were supposed to check!”

“Okay, guys.” Barry stepped forward. “No harm done. Just lift it so those two,” he nodded over at Sara and Len, “can be on their way.”

“Yes, please,” Leonard seconded.

“I thought it was already turned it off?” Sara pointed to where the lights had been flashing until Harry hit a button.

“We can turn off the alarm indicators, but the building’s still on lockdown until we lift it,” Caitlin told her, mostly relieved that there wasn’t anything major to worry about. A lockdown was an absolute last resort and could only be triggered by the worst of threats, as in imminent death (or, apparently, a glitch in the system). It had never gone off on its own before.

“Speaking of lifting it…” Harry began, and Caitlin became tense again at his tone. It wasn’t enough to alert the others, but she heard the thread of unease that he almost completely hid. “The code isn’t working.”

“Must be that pesky wiring issue,” Cisco laughed weakly.

“Wait,” Joe said, “does that mean we’re _stuck_ here?”

“Not for long, I’m sure,” Harry said, and Caitlin shut her eyes because she knew that meant he wasn’t at _all_ sure. “We’ll fix it in no time.”

“What’s ‘no time’?” Sara asked warily.

Harry hummed thoughtfully. “A few hours?”

“Or days,” Cisco amended.

“No longer than a week,” Harry finished.

The others actually started laughing because they had no idea the two men were serious. When neither of them joined in, everyone slowly stopped, coming to the same realization Caitlin already had.

“A week?” Leonard asked, tone deceptively mildly. “A week here? With all of you? No. I’ll never survive it.”

“That’s worst case,” Harry said, placating. “I think a few hours is the better estimate. We’ll have to run some diagnostics,” this was said with a death glare at Cisco, “and that will take three or four hours to start.”

“There’s no other way out?” Sara sounded a bit desperate.

“I can’t use my speed when there’s a lockdown,” Barry said. “So I can’t phase out of here. Not that it’d help you guys if I could.”

“The portal is shut down, too,” Cisco added. “Nor can I open a breach. Part of Harry’s insistence when he upgraded the system. He implemented shields against _everything_ , including meta-human abilities.” He turned to Harry. “I told you that was a bad idea!”

“What’s the point of a lockdown if speedsters can phase right through the walls, or someone can open a breach into the middle of the building?” Harry was exasperated now. “Which has happened _multiple_ times, by the way. My code is _always_ supposed to work as a failsafe to lift the lockdown unless the system ‘thinks’ we’re about to die. I guess it’s not enough of a failsafe if a glitch could cause this.”

“So this team, the ‘brilliant’ one –” Leonard used air quotes for that word, “– has gotten us locked in a building with no immediate way out? You can’t break a window? What if there’s a fire or something.”

“The windows have shutters that cover them in a lockdown,” Harry informed him. “Now theoretically, a fire would cause it to lift, but the fire suppression system should put anything out before it got that far.”

“ _Should_ ,” Caitlin repeated, in warning. “It’s not the best idea to test it when the system’s already gone haywire. There’s no guarantee it’d let us out. Or that it would put out the fire, for that matter.”

Harry was nodding at her. “Right, we don’t want to die in a fiery inferno, do we?”

(Caitlin thought he sounded far too cheerful for the subject at hand.)

“I don’t know, flames might be preferable if my only other option is a potential week with you people,” Leonard said.

“Hey gang!” HR said cheerfully as he strolled into the cortex. “Could you guys keep the alarms down when I’m trying to take a nap?”

Leonard did a double-take at him, then looked over at Harry. “I forgot you had a doppelganger.”

“Wish _I_ could forget,” Harry said, and that one sentence somehow held an entire world of aggravation.

“Oh, Harrison,” HR clapped him on the shoulder as he walked by, “you’re hilarious, as always.”

Harry opened his mouth, no doubt to insult him, but never got to say it because the siren and lights suddenly went off again, eliciting the same startled reaction out of everyone as the first time around.

“Sorry,” Harry said, quickly slamming his hand down on a keyboard to turn it off. “I think I hit the delay button instead of the off button, the first time around.”

“And you’re the one who’s supposed to free us?” Len asked. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“More or less.”

Len spun to face Sara. “Today. Today of _all days_ we had to come here.”

“Welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs. You can check out, but you can never leave,” Cisco said, rather ominously, and when Len accused him of initiating the lockdown on purpose to get back at him for the ‘timeline thing’, Caitlin crossed the room to Harry’s side.

She ignored the two men bickering in the background. “A few hours? Really?”

He was looking at her with too much concern, and she figured he was picking up on her worry.

“If the scans find it, then yes. A few hours, tops. If they don’t, we’ll have to go through the wiring system to see if the earthquake damaged anything and fix it.”

“Yeah,” she said, unhappily. “Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You couldn’t have predicted an earthquake would do this.”

“I should have.”

She didn’t like the self-recrimination in his tone and switched tactics. “You’re right. You should have.” She paused, thoughtfully. “While you’re predicting the future, would you get me some winning lottery numbers? I don’t get paid nearly enough.”

“Caitlin Snow.” She could tell he’d been aiming for censure, but there was too much affection in it for that to be the case.

“Harrison Wells.” She waited a beat. “Not everything that goes wrong is your fault.”

“What about everything that goes right? Can I take credit for that, at least?”

“Don’t you already?” she quipped, laughing when he playfully pushed her away.

“Where, along the line, did you stop respecting me?” he demanded. “I think you’re spending too much time with Cisco.”

“It’s the only hope we have,” she informed him, “the two of us ganging up on you.” She glanced over to where Cisco and Leonard were still arguing. _How long could they go on?_ And what they were arguing about reminded her of their current problem. Some of her humor faded.

Harry must have seen it, since his next words were, “We’ll get out of here. I promise.”

Some of her tension eased, like it always did when he reassured her. No matter _what_ he was reassuring her about. “I never doubted it.”

**XXXXXX**

Sara was pretty sure she’d done five laps around S.T.A.R. Labs in the past hour.

She loathed not having the ability to fix a problem. Rather than sitting around the cortex, feeling even more useless than she already did, she’d decided walking off some of her energy was the best way to deal with her frustration.

Leonard had followed her, of course. When did he ever not?

Any doors and windows they’d come across were covered with some type of impervious metal that must have come down when the alarm sounded. And that was only what they could see. She knew Harry had installed many additional layers of security to protect the building – or rather, the people inside it.

Communications still worked, so they’d been able to alert their team to the issue. (When Mick had gleefully asked if they wanted the Waverider to blast a hole in the side of the building, Harry had merely shrugged and said that it wouldn’t even cause a dent because of the shields around the building. _That_ was what made Sara truly appreciate how high-tech – and kind of scary – his security system was.)

“What do you think is the most valuable thing in this building?” Len asked. He had this annoying habit of peering into every doorway they came across that had a window – nearly all of them were locked.

“We’re not stealing anything from S.T.A.R. Labs.”

“No, of course not. No ‘we’ about it.” He grinned at her. “It’d be all me.”

“ _You’re_ not stealing anything from S.T.A.R. Labs.”

“Come on, what’s the worst they could do to me.”

“You know the man who built this place – well, on his own Earth – also built a portal to connect dimensions? He can literally send you to another world, Leonard.” She regretted saying it the moment his eyes lit up.

“I bet there are some better ones out there. I wonder if I could put in a request.”

“Better ones, hmm? Without me, even?”

“Well, you’d come with me, of course.” He seemed confused, like it hadn’t even been a question.

“No, no, no. Time travel is more than enough for one lifetime, I’m not visiting _other Earths_.”

“But –”

“No!”

Rather than resigned at her refusal, he seemed to see it as a challenge. “I’ll convince you yet.”

“Why do I even try?”

“Because you love me,” he goaded, walking over to try another door along the hallway.

She hesitated, wondering (not for the first time) how much he believed it when he said things like that. Or if he truly thought it was a joke, like he always made it sound. “Keep saying it, Leonard. Maybe one day it’ll be true.”

“A man can dream, Lance.”

“Keep me out of them,” she shot back.

“Not a chance,” he laughed. “They’re the only place I can get you to do whatever I want.”

She could only _imagine_ where he was going with that. “If you even say –”

He spoke right over her: “Last night, you cooked me dinner. It was fantastic.”

“Oh. That’s not so bad, I suppose.”

He eyed her, expression carefully blank. “What were you expecting?”

“Nothing!”

“Uh huh.” He’d turned to look into another dark room, but she heard the smile in his voice. “A little disappointed, are we?”

“Shut up,” she mumbled. Had his last sentence seemed too…knowing? Like he might be aware of how she felt and was purposely keeping things light between them to avoid anything serious? How humiliating would that be, if he knew how much she cared about him and didn’t want to deal with it so he –

“Why is everything around here _locked_?” Len kicked one of the doors in frustration and startled her out of her thoughts. “I’d try breaking in, but after how thoroughly this building’s shut down, I don’t want to risk whatever Wells might have installed to keep people out of the areas where he doesn’t want them to go.”

“Are you saying you’re…afraid?” she challenged.

Leonard paused at that. “Of the guy who you _just pointed out_ built an interdimensional portal? And who set up a security system that not even Allen or Ramon can break out of with their powers? Yeah, I think it’s a reasonable stance to take.”

Sara actually couldn’t argue with him, there.

They made their way through a main lobby clearly meant for visitors – the entire wall that should have been windows and the front door was covered with metal. Even though the building was well-lit, the lack of sunlight made it feel eerie, like they were in a horror movie and had no idea what might be waiting around the next corner.

“So, Lance, how are you going to entertain me until we get out of here?”

“Cisco wasn’t kidding earlier – I knew I should have brought someone else, _anyone_ else, with me. Even Rip would be better than you, at this point.”

He actually stopped walking at that and when she kept going, he called, “I don’t know if you’ve ever said anything so cruel to me. Maybe I should go off and explore on my own.”

She slowed down her own steps, hesitating. She didn’t actually want to split up, she’d simply been trying to annoy him. Like usual.

“You’re not going off on your own,” she said, primly, “because I don’t trust you.”

“Please,” he scoffed, “I know you just want to spend time with me.”

“We _have_ spent the entire day together, even before S.T.A.R. Labs,” she pointed out.

He tapped his chin, thoughtfully. “Is that an admission?”

“That’s me stating the facts, Leonard. Nothing more. Now keep walking.” She continued down the hall, effectively calling his bluff, and tried not to smile when he easily caught up to her.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing to a door that was propped open up ahead.

“Looks like we found one of the break rooms,” Sara said, as they entered. It had a bunch of tables and chairs – enough for 40 or 50 employees to sit comfortably. She’d seen the building plans for S.T.A.R. Labs before and knew there were several break rooms, as well as a cafeteria somewhere that must no longer be in use with so little staff left.

“I thought every room in this building was the ‘break room’,” Leonard remarked dryly, as he went over to one of the fridges and opened it. “There’s actually food in here.”

“In a fridge?” Sara feigned shock. “How bizarre.”

He threw her an unimpressed glance over his shoulder and shut the fridge door to start searching some cabinets – there was a lot of food in them, too, and Len started pulling things out.

“People do work here,” she reminded him. “It’s not surprising there’s food.”

“Define ‘work’.”

“Alright, I get it. You think Cisco does nothing.”

“He sits at a desk every day and gets paid much more than us, for sure – though that’s not hard when Rip pays us _nothing_.”

“As if your every need isn’t taken care of,” she reminded him. “Not to mention whatever you steal in your everyday life on top of that.” She raised her eyebrows, surveying the food he was taking down from the cabinets. “Case in point.”

“Help yourself,” he said, tossing a container of pretzels at her.

There was a large sticker on the side, covering up half the brand name: **Property of Cisco Ramon: That means _you_ HR! **

Sara figured the missing food must have been a recurring problem if Cisco had been annoyed enough to print up sheets of stickers to label his food.

Leonard had found an oversized canvas bag emblazoned with the S.T.A.R. Labs logo and was tossing things into it – most notably, only items with Cisco’s stickers on them.

“This isn’t a grocery store, Leonard.”

“We’ve been here for _ever_ –”

“An hour and a half.”

“– so the least they can do is feed us.” He grabbed a package of cookies. “I hate these,” he said, before nodding and tossing them into the bag.

“You mean the least _Cisco_ can do?” She stared pointedly at the things he was choosing. “You’re only taking his food.”

“Because he’s the only one annoying enough to label it. I don’t see anything that says Caitlin or Wells on it.”

He handed the canvas bag over and she took it without thinking, holding it open as he threw a half-dozen more snacks into it. _How did she always become his unwitting accomplice?_

“They’re never going to let us come back here, Leonard. They’ll put our pictures on the door with a sign: No Admittance.”

He tilted his head in consideration. “You promise?”

“Cisco’s already annoyed that you pretended he didn’t exist before,” she warned. “I’m not going to feel bad for you when he gets upset and exacts some kind of revenge.”

Leonard paused a moment, then shook his head. “Nah, I could take him.”

“I almost hope he vibes you to some other world. It’d serve you right.”

He ignored that as he went back to rummaging through cabinets. “Here’s the most important question of the day, Lance: where do you think they keep the alcohol?”


	2. Chapter 2

It had been nearly three hours.

Not very long in the scheme of things, but the scans Harry had started after the lockdown began were over two-thirds done, and so far, they hadn’t found anything.

Which meant the odds of it being a separate issue, undetectable by the computers, was growing every minute that passed with no results.

There was a very good chance he and Cisco would have to go through the system starting from the electrical room itself.

Harry was leaning against the wall, arms folded in front of him, staring across the room. He knew it looked like he wasn’t doing anything, but he was running through scenarios in his mind, going over every possibility of where things might have gone wrong – and how he could prevent anything like this from happening in the future.

He let his eyes scan over the room, over the people left in it with him. Despite what he'd told Cisco to rile the younger man up, Harry knew it was his own fault they were trapped. Their safety in this building was his responsibility. _His._ Alone.

He'd been trying to keep them safe in the event of the worst possible scenario. He'd been trying to –

Caitlin came over, standing nearer to him than she usually did. She didn't say anything and he wondered if she was worried about him; she was well-aware of how he could get when there wasn’t a quick solution to a problem. He’d spent his entire life finding relatively easy answers to most issues, so when something truly puzzled him, it infuriated him as much as it engaged him – because part of him _loved_ this. Having no solution was rare enough that he thrived on anything that was able to ‘beat’ him – that was, until he chipped away at it and finally emerged the victor.

The downside of becoming so consumed was that he could get lost in his mind for days, obsessed with finding the answer, to the neglect of everything else that needed his attention. Since he’d met her, Caitlin had always been one of the few people who could recognize the signs and help him out of it. Jesse could, too, but she was more wrapped up in her own life now and was less apt to notice. He was actually glad about that because his daughter needed to live her own life, as much as he wished he could keep her with him always – up until moving to Earth-1, they’d only had each other.

Now, they had a lot more than each other. (Too many people, he sometimes thought.)

But though they all liked – and yes, maybe even loved – each other, none of the people here really understood the way he was. None of them except Caitlin.

He wasn’t close to the point where he might lose himself in the problem, not yet, but if they didn’t figure it out soon, he knew he’d get there much earlier than normal because the stakes were far greater this time. He _needed_ to find an answer. Not only because of everyone stuck here, but because Caitlin was one of those people. While he’d much rather have her safe in here with their team, he hated what it was doing to her, and he especially despised that he was technically responsible for keeping her prisoner.

Even though he was thinking about what might have gone wrong with his security system, he couldn't fully concentrate – not the way he should have. His mind was wandering too much, thoughts straying to Caitlin more often than not. She was having a hard time, and though she was pretty good at hiding it, he’d recognized her anxiety from the moment the lockdown began.

“How are you?” she asked, after a few minutes of comfortable silence, and there was more than a thread of worry in the question. It confirmed his earlier suspicion – even though she was worried about the lockdown, she was still concerned about him and brought that up first. It was one of the many reasons he admired her – she was always putting others before herself.

He unfolded his arms and shifted slightly to the left, until they were just touching. “I’m okay,” he told her. “How about you?”

"I don't know," she answered, and when she shrugged, he ignored the way it momentarily brought them closer together. He heard the honesty in her words and appreciated it all the more because he knew how difficult it was for her to open up to anyone. Ever since… No, he wouldn't think about that.

“I want you to be okay,” he admitted, not quite sure why he'd said it, since in the past he'd been careful to only ever think such things.

She was watching him; he wasn't looking at her, but he could feel it. "I want to be okay, too," she finally said.

"You  _will_ be," he swore, turning his head to meet her gaze, and when she shivered at his intensity, he only felt satisfaction that she heard – and believed – him.

She pressed her head back to the wall and stared at the ceiling. After another minute, she spoke again. "I saw the scans aren't showing anything."

He checked the nearest monitor, which displayed the same lack of results it had all afternoon. "Not yet. If there are no obvious results when they finish, in approximately 87 minutes, I think I have it narrowed down to a few possible points of failure.”

“Okay,” she said, softly. “I wish I could be of more help, but I have no idea how you wired the building and tied all the systems together.”

“Are you saying that you don’t want to memorize the electrical plans of S.T.A.R. Labs in the next hour?”

“Hmm. No?” She laughed slightly, and that strangely felt like a more important victory to him than fixing the damn building. “I’ll leave you and Cisco to it.”

“There are worse places to be stuck,” he reminded her. “At least we have access to the entire building. You know my original plans only protected the cortex. Think of how awful that would have been.”

She raised an eyebrow. “For us or for _you_?”

“Exactly,” he said, as a non-answer, smiling when she also did, once more. “When I thought about being stuck with Ramon for an indefinite amount of time, I had to revise it.”

She leaned against him more fully, and this time, he wasn't able to brush it off as easily. He couldn't excuse it as a mere coincidence of how they were standing and thereby happening to touch by mistake. He thought she might have done it by accident, and would pull away when she realized it, but she didn’t.

She simply said, “Don’t forget that I’m in here with you, too.”

“And thank God for that.” As far as he was concerned, her and Jesse being in the building with him were the _only_ good things about today. When Caitlin sent him a questioning look, he explained, “The thought of you being out there without us… If you needed anything or there was some danger…”

“I can take care of myself,” she said, bristling a little.

“I never said you couldn’t. But we both know the dangers of this city can’t be overstated and I’d like for us to be able to be there, not trapped in here while…” He couldn’t finish that thought. “I want all of us to be there,” he finally repeated, “for each other.”

There was much more to it than that, though, and she could tell – he saw it in her eyes. She didn’t push him on it, either. (She was always letting things go when it came to him…too many things, maybe.)

“What do you think of Leonard and Sara?” she asked.

That caught him off-guard enough that he had to think about what she meant by the question. “I hadn’t given them much thought. Should I have?”

“They’re not together,” Caitlin told him, “but I think they’re in love and don’t know how to say it.”

“You can see that?” he challenged, searching her eyes. “When people are in love?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “What do you think?”

He almost answered the wrong question before remembering she was referring to Sara and Leonard, not the two of them. “I think people are extraordinarily adept at protecting themselves, Snow.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” she murmured. “People see what they want to see.”

_Yes, they did._

And he wondered what she saw when she looked at him… If she chose not to see it because she didn’t feel the same, or if he was much better at hiding it than he thought.

**XXXXXX**

“Lance, check it out!” Leonard was standing in the middle of one of the nicest offices he’d ever seen – it rivaled Rip’s (and what that man even needed an office for, Len would never know, seeing as the only thing he’d ever seen him do in it was drink. Well, and lecture their team – Leonard himself, more often than not).

“This has to be Harry’s office.” Sara pointed at a framed photo of Jesse on one of the shelves, which confirmed her assumption. She tossed the canvas bag of Cisco's snack food onto the closest chair. “We shouldn’t be in here.”

“Since when are we ever _not_ where we shouldn’t be?”

While she tried to untangle that question, he looked around with a more scrutinizing eye. There was a large desk near him, facing the door, to easily see any visitors who might enter. A few armchairs were strategically placed facing it, and he had a pang of sympathy for Wells trying to conduct a meeting or anything even _near_ to one with Barry Allen. Or Cisco Ramon. Or both at once.

(No wonder the man had taken a liking to Caitlin Snow – if Leonard had to spend his days here, he’d probably find her the only calm in the storm of Team Flash, himself.)

On the other side of the room was an actual sitting area in front of a fireplace (probably electric) flanked by two tall bookcases. The back wall had a sideboard with cupboards above and below it. The room was busy, but despite the abundance of _things_ everywhere, it was rather neat and efficient. Leonard thought that fit with what he knew of Harrison Wells, so far.

“What if he finds us in here?”

“Is their team’s resident doctor in here?” Len asked absently, as he approached the desk and sat in the chair behind it. It was supremely comfortable.

“Caitlin?” Sara was puzzled. “No.”

“Then he won’t be coming in here, either. Rest assured.” Before she could ask what he was going on about, he added, “Wells wouldn’t have left it unlocked if he cared about anyone coming in here.”

“Yeah, people he works with and _trusts_. You might technically count for the first, but the second? I don’t know.”

“What’s untrustworthy about me?” Len asked, and he supposed the question would have held more weight if he hadn’t been rummaging through Harry’s desk drawers at the time.

“Didn’t you just tell me earlier that you didn’t want to cross him? Stealing from his office won't make him look upon you in a favorable light.”

“I’m just curious,” he protested. “Someone as rich as him probably has some good stuff in here –” at her warning look, he sighed, “– to check out and kill some time until the lockdown that’s _his_ fault is over.”

“As usual, your reasoning is iffy at best.”

He’d moved on from the desk (lots of paperwork and office supplies – talk about dull). “Maybe he has some cool Earth-2 gadgets stashed around,” he suggested, opening up some cupboards above the sideboard. “Like…a ray gun or what have you.”

“Yes, I’m sure he’d leave something that deadly lying around.”

“You never know.”

“The Waverider has enough things for you to –”

“We’re not on the Waverider, are we? I want something to do _now_.”

“Why do I feel like I’m babysitting you?”

“You used to be more fun than this, I swear. I think that gig as temporary acting captain really changed you.” He looked her up and down. “You’re so…responsible now. It disappoints me.”

“Leonard –”

“Is borrowing technically stealing? Because if we found something from another Earth – even from that HR guy’s Earth – we could bring it to Gideon to recreate and then return the original. They’d be none the wiser and we could make a fortune.”

It seemed as if she were actually considering that for a moment, then shook herself out of it. “No. Normally, I’d be all for this, joining in, even – but not when it’s one of our friends. Look, food or whatever is one thing, but please do not steal anything valuable from this place.”

He picked up on the edge of seriousness in her voice and allowed his playful air to slowly vanish. He stepped closer, into her personal space, so she had to look up at him. “You’re serious.”

“Yes.”

“This is important to you?”

“ _Yes_.”

She was watching him closely, and he could practically guess her thoughts. She probably expected him to scoff at her, or make fun of her for being the ‘adult’ again. Maybe even to argue and go back to explaining how there was no harm in ‘borrowing’ things if they planned to return them.

Instead, he took a step back and said, “Okay.”

She waited a beat, maybe for the catch to that (and she should know better – did she really think he’d tell her if there was one?). “Seriously? That’s it?”

“What do you want me to say? I do listen to you, Lance.” He allowed a ghost of a smile. “Occasionally.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “I just don’t want you to alienate these people, Leonard.”

“Should I be offended?”

“They’ve done a lot for us. I don’t want them to look at you and see – and see…”

He narrowed his eyes, not sure he liked where she seemed to be going. “See _what_? The thief? The criminal? The man who –”

“Who you’re not,” she interrupted, sharply. “I don’t want them to see who you’re _not_.”

“Who do you think you’ve been spending time with this past year, Lance? Because who you see?” He held his arms out. “That’s who you get.”

She watched him, eyes burning, and he knew he might have crossed some line with her he hadn’t been aware existed. “I don’t know who _you_ think you’ve been spending time with this past year, Len,” she purposely echoed his words, voice tight, “but I know you. The _real_ you. Or have you forgotten?”

No, he knew that. (All too well.)

“I guess it’s more that I want them to see who I see when I look at you. The man you are almost all the time with me, yet with others, almost never.” She sounded much more frustrated than he was used to (and that was saying something, when it came to their interactions). “All I’m trying to say is…you don’t have to purposely do things to push people away before they can ever get close.”

“You’ve shown me that already,” he told her. “Why do you think I’m still here? Not here with _you_ – though I mean that, too – but on our team?”

“Why don’t you tell me?” she challenged.

“If I were still that person you’re talking about, I would have done exactly what you’re saying. I’d have pushed you all away a long time ago. By leaving.” He leaned forward, to make sure his next words had impact: “I don’t make my choices randomly, Lance. I don’t stay anywhere by accident, either.”

She watched him, almost calculating, and for the first time in a while, he had no idea what she was thinking. 

“It seems a good time to ask," she began, slowly, "because you've never explicitly said, but does that mean you think you’ll stick around for a while yet?”

Her question genuinely stunned him. She thought he might _leave_? Sure he'd had the thought many times; it comforted him after missions where someone almost died. Or the world almost ended. Or he was paired up with Rip. But he'd never truly considered it – and he'd never leave without her. If she didn't know that by now, then he must have been doing something wrong and he had to correct that. However, it wasn't a conversation he wanted to have in Harrison Wells' office.

So instead he deflected with a joke, heaving an overly dramatic sigh for her benefit. “At this rate? I’m beginning to think I’ll never escape.”

“What if we don’t want you to escape?”

“See, this is part of the problem,” he lamented. “Saying things like that only convinces me that you want me around. And who’s this ‘we’ you speak of?”

“Me.” She paused for a significantly long time. “Mick, I guess.”

He laughed. “The two of you, huh?”

“Ray loves you, too,” she said, innocently.

“Now you’re giving me reasons to  _go_.”

She broke into a grin. “And Rip. And Stein. And Jax. And –”

“Okay, okay. So everyone likes me by now, supposedly.”

“Yup. Not just on our team, either. Some people in this building seem to like you, too.”

He groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“My point is that you have a lot of people around who care about you.”

“Which is even more amazing when you consider how things began among all of us,” he added, referring not only to her and their team, but everyone currently trapped in the building with them.

“Exactly,” she said. “So let’s not give them any excuses to banish you – or me – and get back.”

“Fine. I’m doing this under protest, though, since sitting around in a room with Barry Allen or Ramon or that HR guy should get me some kind of bonus.”

“Maybe Rip will give you a percentage of what he gives us already,” she said, rather sassily, in his opinion.

“Any percent of zero is still zero.”

“That’s the joke,” she loudly whispered, behind her hand, then preceded him out of the office.

Before following her, he grabbed both the bag of food he'd stolen and a full bottle of whiskey he’d spotted in one of the cabinets while searching. He needed _something_ to get him through the rest of the afternoon (and he refused to think about how he’d get through any longer than that if this ordeal turned into a day or more).

They made their way back to the cortex and found that most the others had disappeared. The only three there were Harry, Cisco, and Joe, the last of whom was off in the corner on his phone trying to explain to someone why he probably wouldn’t make it back to work that day. (As if anyone would notice his absence considering the limited time he spent at the station as it was.)

“Where did –” Leonard began, then stopped himself. “Never mind, I remembered I don’t care enough to ask.”

“What’s that?” Cisco asked, curiously studying the overflowing canvas bag.

“We brought snacks for everyone!” Len announced, upending the bag to let its contents spill out onto the desk.

“Do not get crumbs on anything," Harry implored. “HR already ruined two keyboards this month by spilling coffee.”

“Wait a minute,” Cisco was saying, as he rapidly checked bags and boxes and packages. “These are all my snacks." He angrily held up a box of Cheez-Its. “Did you two not see the stickers?”

“Oh, we saw the stickers," Leonard said, affecting a deliberately carefree tone that he knew (from personal experience) would irritate Cisco to the maximum degree. "However, I’m starving. We’ve been here all day.”

“Not even four hours,” Sara corrected.

Cisco wrapped his arms around a bunch of snacks and drew them further away from Len. “I don’t work hard every day –” Len coughed loudly as Cisco glared at him, “– to pay for your food.”

"Cisco," Harry waved his hand in a circle over the food, “you expensed literally all of this.” His voice was a perfect monotone that Leonard found himself admiring, if only for the way Cisco narrrowed his eyes in response.

“Whose side are you on?” Cisco hissed.

“We’re the reason they’re stuck here," Harry told him. "More specifically _you_ , considering your failure at running the diagnostic I wanted. The least we can do is feed them.”

“Hear that, Lance? Sounds exactly like something I said not too long ago. I knew Wells was a decent man. Speaking of which…” Leonard reached inside his jacket and pulled out a bottle.

Harry frowned. “Is that whiskey from my office?”

“Indeed it is. All Lance's idea – I tried to stop her.”

Sara didn’t even bother censuring Leonard, turning to face Harry. “I’m really sorry. I respect people’s boundaries and personal space. Leonard –”

He chose that moment to drape his arms over her shoulders and held the bottle in front of her so she could read the label.

“– does not," she finished. "As you can see.”

Leonard laughed from behind her and held the bottle up toward Harry. “The point Lance is missing is that I brought it down here to ask if you minded if we had some.”

She tipped her head back to look at him. “You did?”

“I’m asking him right now, aren’t I?”

“I’m so proud of you,” she said, unable to resist breaking out into a grin.

“Oh God,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

“You two do what you want,” Harry said, shrugging. “Have the whole thing for all I care. Consider it an apology for ruining your afternoon.”

“You never offer _me_ whiskey,” Cisco said, affronted. “And you ruin my afternoon almost every day.”

“By reminding you to do your job?” Harry challenged, eyes much too bright, and Len guessed that was his version of laughing without actually having to do it.

“Something like that,” Cisco said, defensively.

“I don’t know if I’d call the afternoon ruined just yet,” Len said, somewhat charitably.

“If they’re drinking, I’m drinking, too,” Cisco insisted, searching in a desk drawer and pulling out a stack of paper cups. “Leftover from the last party HR threw against our will – was it Presidents Day?”

“It was in honor of the summer solstice, Francisco,” HR said, as he wandered back into the room. “What are we drinking to?”

Len and Sara broke into genuine laughter at the question.

“Who needs a reason to drink?” Leonard asked, pouring liberal amounts into four cups. “If that’s the case, no wonder some of you are so uptight.” He flicked his eyes over. “Ramon.”

“Next time bring Ray with you,” Cisco begged Sara. “You know, if you and Leonard can tear yourselves away from each other for an entire afternoon.”

Leonard ignored that and motioned with the bottle to Harry, at a nearby computer, who shook his head.

“This is from the cabinet in Harrison’s office, right?” HR asked.

“Why am I not surprised you’ve searched it?” Harry only sounded resigned.

“I like to intimately know my surroundings,” HR told him.

Leonard sipped the whiskey, enjoying its smoothness. “We were hoping to find something interesting up there. Like a ray gun. That vaporizes people.”

“By ‘we’ he means himself,” Sara explained.

“I don’t have ray guns,” Harry said, flatly. “And if I did, I certainly wouldn’t keep them anywhere that was accessible to any of you.”

“Worried we might vaporize you, Harry?” Cisco grinned.

“More like yourselves as you tried to play with them.”

“Sometimes you act like we can’t be trusted,” Cisco sounded offended.

Harry’s only response was to stare at him.

“On Earth-19, we have guns that suffocate you,” HR said, cheerfully.

Sara set her drink down. “What?”

“Yeah, it’s a small projectile that pierces the skin and releases a drug which paralyzes only your lungs and causes you to slowly suffocate.” He kept grinning as he explained, “It’s a terrible, terrible way to die.”

“Why are you _smiling_?” Cisco was horrified as he asked the same question Len had been wondering. “At times I truly believe you’re a sociopath, HR.”

“What, it’s not like I invented them! Besides, you’ll be fine if you get a shot of the antidote in time,” he added. “It’s very popular to carry. Like epi-pens on your Earth.”

“I take it back,” Cisco said. “You’re _all_ sociopaths.”

“At least you can undo it. Can’t undo a bullet,” HR said, still smiling, and as they all paused in thought, he took his cup of whiskey and strolled over to talk to Joe who’d just ended his phone call.

Leonard had been mulling over options, half-convinced the whiskey was helping with that. "Why don't we cut the power? Wouldn't that end the lockdown?"

Cisco was leaning back in his chair and abruptly laughed at that. "You're underestimating Harrison Wells." He kicked a leg out, which caused his chair to snap back upright, and turned to face Harry. "Why don't you tell them what you did?"

Harry had crossed his arms, looking rather uncomfortable. "I wired the building to run on generators if the power is cut."

"And those generators are behind unbreachable walls when a lockdown is in place," Cisco informed them, obviously annoyed at that fact.

"What's the point of a security system that fails if someone outside the building cuts our power!" Harry snapped. "I was thinking of our safety, that's all."

"And how does limiting our access to the generators help us?" Cisco asked, in such a way that Leonard could tell he'd posed the question before.

"It's not to limit us, it's to protect the generators in the event of a natural disaster," Harry said. "Let me point out, yet again, that the access code should always override the system."

"How's that working out for you today?" Cisco asked, darkly.

"Have some more whiskey," Harry told him wryly. "It'll put you in great shape to help me fix the system after the scans are done in a half hour."

"Don't mind if I do," Cisco said defiantly, as he poured more whiskey into his cup and then mumbled something about where was Caitlin when he needed her to take his side.

“Where _is_ Caitlin, anyways?” Harry looked around as if just realizing she'd been gone for too long. His gaze settled on Cisco. “Where’d she say she was going?”

“I’m not her keep–”

“Cisco.”

The younger man glanced up, a bit guiltily, in Len’s estimation. “She said something about needing some air.”

Harry was clearly unhappy – whether at her absence or her reason for leaving, Leonard couldn’t tell. If he had to bet, he’d guess both.

“I hope she's okay?” Sara said, half in question. It hadn’t been that obvious, but Len could tell that Sara had also picked up on the other woman's odd behavior since the lockdown started. He and Sara weren’t close with Caitlin, probably even more acquaintances than friends, but they could both recognize when someone was troubled by issues they couldn’t seem to shake.

Harry was studying Sara, and Leonard got the distinct impression that he was assessing if her concern was real, or simply polite. Leonard saw the exact moment he decided it was the former since he nodded and said, "She'll be fine." Then he left the room, presumably to go find her.

“Something’s up with him lately,” Cisco said, waving vaguely in the direction of the exit Harry had just gone through. He savored some of his whiskey, then added, "I can’t figure it out.”

“He’s in love with your colleague,” Len told him, matter of factly, as Cisco inhaled his drink, causing a coughing fit.

Sara’s eyes snapped over to Leonard, and he could virtually see her piecing together the puzzle of what exactly was going on between Harrison Wells and Caitlin Snow.

Once Cisco had recovered, he shook his head in denial. “What are you talking about? I think I’d have noticed.”

“Would you?” Len challenged. “Because you didn’t. Yet I saw it after being here for twenty minutes.”

“You’re delusional,” Cisco insisted. “Moreso than usual.”

Leonard twisted in his chair to face Sara. "Aren't these people supposed to be smart, Lance? That's what you're always telling me, isn't it?"

"I'm right here," Cisco huffed, not appreciating the glancing insult. "They're friends, that's all. And honestly, Harrison Wells in love?" He stared off into space. "Nah, I can't see it."

"Funny. Because you see it _every day_ ," Len told him, as Cisco merely shook his head again. He thought the other man might argue further, but Cisco seemed to get distracted sorting through the snacks on the desk, finally settling on opening a bag of chips. (If Leonard had known how easy it'd be to keep him quiet, he would have always brought food with him to S.T.A.R. Labs.)

“Did Harry tell you that?” Sara asked, interrupting Len's musings. At his blank look, she clarified, “That he loves Caitlin?”

“He didn’t have to, not outright. I could see it.” He looked at her over the top of his drink. “It’s easy enough when you recognize the signs.”

“Caitlin didn’t outright say it either, about him,” Sara murmured, “but…”

“She feels the same?” He could only inwardly sigh. “Then what have they been doing wasting their time?”

“It’s not always that simple,” Sara insisted. “Not if you don’t know how the other person feels. It’s a lot easier to…”

“Take the safe route?” _Yeah, tell him about it._

She nodded in agreement. “To most people, the guarantee of safety is preferable to the possibility of getting hurt.”

“What do you prefer, Lance?” he asked, voice low. “Guaranteed safety or the possible risk?”

“I want to say the latter, but…” She sounded a little disappointed in herself. “That’s not always true. It’s never easy, is it?”

 _No, it definitely never was_. But if the other two were close to figuring things out…how difficult could it really be?

**XXXXXX**

After talking to Cisco, Harry knew exactly where Caitlin had gone.

Whenever she needed a break, she went upstairs to one of the balconies that overlooked part of the city. Only she wouldn’t be able to get out there now. Not with the entire building locked down.

He found her up there anyways, sitting in the hallway, her back against the wall and her eyes shut. He could tell she wasn’t sleeping, and as he got closer, she opened her eyes to see who was approaching.

He could also tell, by the lack of surprise on her face, that she’d guessed it would be him.

He stood there, waiting, until she tipped her head slightly and that was the only invitation he needed to slide down the wall next to her.

He didn’t say anything, giving her the chance to speak if she wanted. Or not, if she didn’t want to.

It hurt to remember what she’d gone through and know there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t go back in time, he couldn’t fix their past, so he tried not to dwell on it. He knew that was her strategy, too. As hard as it was for him, he imagined it must have been nearly impossible for her to forget.

Even though he couldn’t make it go away, he could still be there. If she wanted him to be.

If there was something he’d learned in all his years, it was that sometimes the pain could be lessened the slightest bit if there was someone willing to share it.

And he was. He was willing to share it.

(More than just willing, he _wanted_ to do that for her.)

He also knew she’d do the same for him.

Every minute or two, she took a breath as if she were going to speak, but then stopped herself each time.

When he glanced over at her, he saw she’d pulled her knees up and was absently running her hands over them in a repetitive motion.

He turned his left hand over, palm facing up, in silent invitation. She stilled her own hands before exhaling slowly and reaching her right hand over to take his.

A myriad of questions flickered across her face, but she only asked one of them: “With the lockdown… Isn’t there somewhere more important you need to be?”

“No,” he said, waiting for her to meet his eyes. “There isn’t.”

She nodded and glanced away. He suspected she might want to cry and was doing anything possible not to in front of him. He wasn’t quite sure how to tell her that he wouldn’t have minded…that it would have been okay.

He lifted his left arm, without letting go of her hand, which forced her to raise her arm, as well. It took her a second to realize what he wanted to do. She leaned forward so he could more easily put his arm around her and then settled against his side, resting her head on his shoulder – he’d never let go of her hand and she gripped it tighter, maybe in appreciation, or thanks.

He wasn’t sure how long they sat there together, but neither of them spoke again.

Sometimes there was nothing they needed to say.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left feedback on this story, I truly appreciate it!
> 
> Special thanks to Tavyn and crazygirlne. You two are so wonderful!

Sara thought she’d probably been drinking too much, but it wasn’t like there was much else to do around the place. Sure, playing with a lot of S.T.A.R. Labs’ engineering tech would have been fun, but she didn’t exactly have a death wish (and she was reasonably sure a lot of stuff here could quickly turn lethal if she didn’t know what she was doing with it).

Leonard filled their cups again as Cisco watched them with mild disapproval.

“Is this all you two do during the day?” he asked. “Sit around and drink?”

“Pretty much,” Sara told him.

Len swirled his whiskey, considering. “We also spar. And play games. And harass everyone we know.”

“But drinking’s still a big part of it,” Sara added, as if that needed specific clarification.

Leonard nodded in agreement. “The difference is that we’re usually on a ship while we’re drinking.”

“And we rarely bother with cups,” Sara said, much too gleeful. “This is fancy by our standards.” She held her drink up to Leonard who automatically tapped his cup against hers.

“Paper cups are fancy to you two?” Cisco scoffed. “You live such a glamorous life on your high-tech spaceship.”

Sara tried not to laugh. “Timeship.”

“Whatever!” The jealousy in Cisco’s voice was unmistakable. “I can’t believe you’re entrusted with keeping the timeline stable.”

“I actually agree with you on that front,” Leonard said. “It even shocks _me_ most days. Then again, our team was put together by Rip Hunter, so that should tell you everything you need to know.”

“Stop insulting yourself,” Sara scolded. “And me. _And_ our team!”

He gave her chair a kick, causing it to spin around, and Cisco reached over to stop it. “Do you do this kind of thing on your space – timeship?" Cisco asked. "How are _any_ of us still alive?”

“Maybe Lance has a point – maybe we’re more competent than you thought.”

“Nooo,” Cisco said, slowly. “That can’t be it.”

Barry returned and stopped in front of the desk, watching them mischievously. "When are you two going to invite me to the wedding, already?" he asked. "I have a bet going with Joe and I'm eager to collect."

Sara let out a huff of annoyance, but it had little effect, as Barry merely smiled at her and then took out his phone, fiddling with it as he moved further away. She glanced over at Len who was shaking his head, though for once he said nothing in response.

Barry had made similar quips like that in the past, and though she knew he was mostly trying to rile up Leonard, she was becoming more annoyed by it. She didn't know why exactly, except maybe the jokes hit much closer to home nowadays than they used to – for her at least. For Leonard...who knew. He was the same with her as he'd always been.

Maybe it was the slight buzz from the alcohol or maybe it was the idea of 'getting back' at Barry, but a sudden idea occurred to her and it seemed brilliant. (Sure, looking back it'd seem childish, but in that moment, she swore it was brilliant.)

“You guys want to see something hilarious?” Sara asked Cisco and Len, more than a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Always,” Leonard promised.

“Okay.” She downed the rest of her drink. “I’m going to go hit on Barry.”

“Uhhh, what?” Cisco shook his head a bit to clear it. Or maybe understand her better. “I thought you said ‘hilarious’?”

“She did,” Len confirmed, and Sara was up and walking away before she could hear Cisco’s sputtering response.

She went over to Barry who was doing something on his phone – texting Harry? – who still hadn’t come back yet, she realized.

No matter, Harrison Wells wasn’t her concern at the moment.

Barry was too far away from the main desk for the two men there to hear their conversation, so she angled herself near enough to him that he took a few steps back. “How ya doing, Barry?”

One of the things she loved about him was his near-permanent, cheerfully good mood that was almost impossible to shake, and it was true even today, despite the inconvenience of the lockdown. “I’m good,” he said warmly. “How are things on the Waverider?”

“Same as ever. End of the world every week and all that.” She stepped closer. He inched back. “If you guys only knew how many times we’ve saved your lives.”

“Back at you,” Barry said, and there was the first hint of confusion in his voice as he (maybe unconsciously) picked up on her body language.

She moved forward again and he took a quick step back, having gone so far by now that he hit the desk with enough force that the whiskey bottle and empty cups on it moved a few inches.

“Watch it,” Len complained, grabbing the bottle and holding it close.

“Leonard,” Barry said, voice laced with more relief than any of them had _ever_ heard him infuse in that name. “Sara was telling me about your adventures in space.”

“In time,” he corrected, mildly.

“Space and time,” Sara said. “And as impressive as that is, I have to admit that super speed has always impressed me a little more.”

“Thank…you?” Barry’s eyes switched from her to Len and back again. He obviously expected the other man to help him out, but Len was none too inclined.

“You know, Barry,” she assessed him with a critical gaze, “you’re looking much fitter than I remembered.”

“I am?” He was undoubtedly pleased at the compliment, before remembering the entire conversation was making him uncomfortable, and became more subdued. “Um, thanks.”

“All that running around probably keeps you in great shape, huh?”

Barry was clearly unsure of what was happening. “I guess it…helps.”

“I bet you have a lot of stamina.” She ignored Leonard coughing in a not-very-successful attempt to hide his laughter.

“Yeah, I can run for a long time,” Barry managed to say, looking around, probably hoping for any exit he could find, but the only two people nearby were Cisco and Len, and neither of them were any help. Len had propped his head on his hand, watching the conversation with rapt attention, and Cisco looked about as lost as Barry did.

“I wasn’t thinking of running,” Sara said, pressing a hand to Barry’s arm, which caused him to lurch to the side, wrenching away from her.

“Sara,” he said, pitching his voice lower, “I think you’ve had a little too much to drink.”

“I think I’ve had the perfect amount.”

“I thought you and…” His eyes fell back to Leonard warily, as if expecting the other man to vault over the desk and put a stop to whatever was going on.

“Len? Me and Len?” Sara blew out a breath, frustrated. “Why do people keep saying that?”

Leonard had filled his cup again and held it up in a toast. “It’s your undeniable longing for me, Lance. Everyone can see it.”

Her look to him was much more ‘annoyed exasperation’ than ‘undeniable longing’, but she could tell that didn’t deter him. Not in the slightest.

And yeah, maybe that was their thing by now.

That was when Iris returned, coming to a stop next to Barry – or more accurately, he grabbed her arm when she approached and pulled her into his side in a near death-grip.

“Hey, honey.” Iris smiled at him, then the others, confused as she was. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Barry said loudly. “Nothing at all. Just having a chat with my friends here. Good friends. _Friends_.” The last was said while eyeing Sara sternly.

“I was just hitting on Barry,” Sara said calmly, causing Barry to grip his girlfriend’s shoulders and place her as a shield in front of him.

“I’m – Sara – Iris and I are together.” He was tripping over his words badly enough that Sara almost felt a twinge of regret (thankfully, the whiskey quickly took care of that). “I thought you knew.”

“I knew,” Sara confirmed, trying for seductive, and not quite sure if she was managing it. “The invitation is for both of you.”

“Top me off!” Cisco declared, blindly holding out his cup to Leonard, unable to look away from the riveting scene before him.

Iris raised her eyebrows and what she said next – it made Sara think she could easily love Iris West for real: “I’m not opposed.”

Sara wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen Barry turn as red as he did glancing from her to Iris. He forced some laughter, and when neither joined in, he pulled at the collar of his shirt. “I don’t think that…oh God.” Barry swallowed, turning to his friend and begging, “Cisco, help me!”

“I don’t… You’re beyond my help here, man.” Cisco shoved his chair back a few feet to separate himself even more.

“Leonard?” Barry asked weakly.

Len had steepled his fingers together. “I think this is the best idea Sara’s ever had, personally. Only one thing would make it better.”

“Don’t say it,” Cisco begged, into his drink.

“I can join, right?” Len asked.

Sara had to turn away because she was about to start laughing – not only from Len’s evil suggestion, but Barry looking like he was moments from fleeing the room. Or maybe the country.

“I’m so…” Barry could barely form a coherent sentence. “I’m… What?”

That was when Harry and Caitlin returned, inadvertently saving Barry from endlessly more harassment.

“We went around the entire building,” Harry told them, as he and Caitlin stopped at the desk. “Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything.”

“So much for your ‘possible points of failure’,” Cisco muttered, from behind his cup.

Harry had instantly picked up on the strange vibe amongst the group. “Allen, why do you look like you’re about to have a stroke?”

“Harry! Caitlin!” Barry greeted, as if they’d been gone for months. “We’ve missed you guys so much. Never leave this room again.”

“Alright,” Harry said, obviously deciding he had no desire to deal with whatever was going on, “I’m sure I don’t want to know.” He and Caitlin went over to one of the computers on the far side of the room and Barry nervously turned to face his friends. Who were, by then, openly laughing.

Sara could practically see the tension evaporate from his body as he laughed, too, equal parts relief and acknowledgement of allowing himself to fall for it too easily.

“You guys are a riot,” he said dryly. “I admit, I probably should have known better.”

“Sorry,” Sara said, linking her arm with his. “I’m going stir-crazy here and I couldn’t resist. I do think you’re pretty cute, Barry Allen.”

He flushed red again, this time with happy embarrassment instead of worried. “Right back at you, Sara Lance.” He turned to the others. “Luckily for everyone, I can take a joke. Watch yourselves, though. You never know when I might strike back.”

“For what it's worth…” Leonard drew the words out, “I wasn’t joking.” He followed up immediately with, “Drink, Allen?”

Barry’s smile wavered, turning unsure again. “No thanks.” He quickly let go of Sara and took Iris’ hand, pulling her toward Joe, probably seeking safe refuge.

“Leave him alone,” Sara admonished, but there was no heat in it. “I might have traumatized him enough for one day.”

“Exactly. _You_ started it.” Leonard pushed the rolling chair next to him over with his foot, in invitation for her to sit down.

“With no intention of ever finishing it,” she reminded him, taking the seat and needing an extra moment when it rolled a little. (Her equilibrium was slightly off – that had been some good whiskey.) “But with you…even _I_ can’t say for sure whether you’re joking, sometimes.”

He hooked his foot around the chair and pulled it closer to his. “I’ll give you a hint. The one time I’m definitely _never_ joking is with you.”

She started to laugh again and when he only watched her intently, it faded away. “Is _that_ a joke?”

“Oh my _God_ ,” Cisco snapped. “He’s in love with you, you’re in love with him. Even I can see it and I’ve had three drinks. You’re welcome.”

“Very funny,” she laughed, checking for Leonard’s reaction. He wasn’t looking at her, though, he was staring at Cisco intently.

“ _That_ you can see?” Leonard demanded. “We’ve been here a few hours and you understand that, but your two friends who you work with _every day_ – you don’t see it in them.”

“Yeah, you’re still crazy on that front,” Cisco claimed. “Trust me, there is absolutely nothing between Harry and Caitlin except friendship.”

Sara didn’t know if she could blame it on the slight buzz of the alcohol, but had Leonard more or less agreed with Cisco that they were in love? How was that possible if she’d never said anything to him about her feelings?

Or had she? Without realizing it?

“What did you just say?” she asked Leonard, carefully.

Cisco must have interpreted her question as being aimed at him (and that she was borderline deaf), since he yelled, “I said the two of you are –”

Leonard leaned over in his chair and kissed her, and the subsequent roaring in her ears effectively drowned out however Cisco finished his sentence.

A dozen questions began to form in her mind, vanishing in nearly the same instant. Because _this_ was the answer. To all of them. Him kissing her was the answer to how he felt and how she felt and how they were supposed to be with each other.

When he made the slightest move back, like he might be thinking about breaking it off, she surged forward to stay with him – but the chairs were on _wheels_ and it was a terrible idea (probably even without the alcohol), and the force of what she did caused his chair to move back and disturbed her own precarious balance. She was certain she was going to hit the floor when he quickly pulled her with him, and she somehow ended up sitting on his lap.

She was laughing too hard after that to go back to kissing him, though she desperately wanted to. They were ridiculous, she knew that. And they had an audience. And…none of that mattered when she looked into his eyes and saw her own amusement reflected there. He was as happy as she was. _That_ was what mattered.

“You’re not going to argue with what Cisco said?” she asked, softly, when she’d finally managed to stop laughing.

“Can’t.” Leonard shrugged, like it was of no consequence either way. “For perhaps the first time in his life, he’s not wrong.”

“I take offense at that,” Cisco said. “If either of you care.”

“He’s not wrong?” Sara was in wonder at Leonard’s feelings, still trying to understand it on a rational level, but when his gaze turned more scrutinizing, she realized he’d taken her question as being unsure of what she felt.

“Or is he, Lance?”

“No,” she promised, firmly. “He’s not wrong.”

To further prove it, she pressed her mouth to his again and felt him smile against her before he pulled her closer.

She could faintly hear Cisco in the background saying, “Three wasn’t enough, I definitely need another drink.” Not that she or Len paid him any mind.

**XXXXXX**

Caitlin thought she was doing better.

After the time she’d spent with Harry upstairs, her mood had drastically improved; he’d always had that effect on her.

On their way back to the cortex, he’d checked the scans at a computer terminal and when they showed no issues, the two of them had circled the building, checking the areas he thought were most vulnerable. Too bad they’d found nothing.

Upon returning to the cortex, they’d discussed a few more possibilities about what could be going on with the lockdown, but none of them seemed too promising. She was sitting at one of the computers in the back of the room, but wasn’t doing anything to help – unless tapping her fingers repeatedly on the desk counted as ‘help’.

She’d been valiantly trying (and failing) to ignore her slowly increasing anxiety. That was when she became distracted by Sara and Leonard kissing across the room.

“Snow? Snow!”

“What!” she snapped, tipping her head back to find Harry standing right behind her chair. She felt irrationally guilty at having been caught staring at Sara and Len. Though not guilty enough, apparently…since she went right back to staring.

Harry followed her gaze to the couple near the entrance and they both watched in amazement as Sara abruptly pulled some kind of weird maneuver (planned? unplanned? who knew with them?) and dove at Leonard, causing their chairs (on wheels, people, come on) to hit each other and spring back apart. Caitlin was sure Sara was going to hit the floor, but Leonard caught her at the last second, pulling her onto his chair with him.

"They're going to ruin my furniture," Harry muttered, and Caitlin couldn't help laughing at that. As she did, she noticed Sara had also started laughing at something, and Leonard merely watched her, smiling with the same amount of excess affection everyone had gotten used to seeing (from both of them) that afternoon. They began talking quietly, which caused Cisco to start complaining about something that Caitlin couldn’t quite hear, and whatever it was had no effect on Sara and Leonard, since they simply kissed again.

“You were right. Not that I’d ever expect anything less from you,” Harry said.

She swiveled in her chair and since he was so close, it forced him to take a step back. She searched his face to try and determine what he was thinking, but…there was nothing there that she could discern.

It disheartened her as much as it didn’t surprise her. Harry was…extraordinarily stoic. And reserved, and guarded, and well, he just never let anyone in – she guessed that he’d never wanted to.

So why did she always have some idea in the back of her mind that one day he might want to let _her_ in?

Sometimes she’d even trick herself into thinking that he already had…and then he’d do something to completely reverse her opinion.

She knew she should be used to it by now. She’d long ago resigned herself to the fact that the love she felt for him…he’d never return it. They were co-workers. Teammates. Friends, even. But more than that? It was more than he wanted, or was willing to give.

So she switched her thoughts to something else – namely, their current predicament. As much as she hated thinking about it, she had no choice if she wanted to contribute any way she could toward them getting out of here. She knew they’d figure it out, there was virtually no way they’d remain trapped in S.T.A.R. Labs forever, but waiting around with no potential solution, no idea how to even get close to one? It wasn’t conducive to her well-being.

Harry moved to the center of the room and announced, “I don’t know what I’m missing, but it has to be _something_.”

The chatter in the room faded away as people turned to face him. Everyone was back in the cortex now, except for Wally and Jesse (where had they gone, anyways?) so the room was fairly crowded again.

“You don’t know? You have no idea?” Sara sounded pretty disappointed (and hadn’t moved from sitting with Leonard, either, Caitlin noticed with a tinge of envy for what they had).

“Yeah, we’ve given you over four hours,” Leonard complained. “Don’t tell me a day or _longer_ is an actual possibility at this point.”

“I’m trying,” Harry insisted, “but none of the most likely scenarios have panned out and we’re still on lockdown. I’ll welcome any suggestions, no matter how far-fetched.”

As the talking resumed, with people brainstorming possibilities, Caitlin got up and started pacing. Harry had to be truly at his wit's end to actively seek help from the others. Not that he’d ever turn it down if they offered, but for him to _ask_? He must have run out of ideas on what might have gone wrong.

And if Harrison Wells had exhausted every possibility…

It wasn’t a comforting thought. Every time Caitlin hit a wall, she turned and went back the other way. She was racking her mind to try and think of what the problem could be – if it wasn’t a real threat, and it wasn’t a software glitch, and it wasn’t electrical…what did that leave?

She could feel Harry’s eyes tracking her as she paced (and she passed within arm’s reach of him every time she crossed the middle of the room), but she barely glanced at him, too caught up in her own thoughts.

“What if we’re stuck here indefinitely?” She was aware she’d asked some variation of that question a half-dozen times already that afternoon, but she couldn’t help herself.

“We won’t be,” Harry said, though his words had little direct effect on her anymore.

She was wringing her hands and almost walked into Barry when he inadvertently crossed her path. She spun on her heel, and headed for the opposite wall. (It wasn’t helping, but she couldn’t stop.) “How long until we run out of food? Have you thought about the air filtration system? We won’t run out of oxygen, will we? Or what if –”

Harry was kissing her before she could finish the sentence, and it shocked her enough that she couldn’t register what was happening for a few seconds. He’d pulled her into him when she got close enough during the pacing, and he’d – he was –

Pulling away from her because she was standing there frozen and he must have thought –

She reached up, grabbing his shoulders to try and keep him there, and when that didn’t seem like enough, she got up on her tiptoes to loop her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She kissed him with everything she had and she was torn between either laughing or crying from the flood of emotions that were drowning her. Instead of giving in to either option, she deepened their kiss, and when she felt his breath stutter in surprise, she allowed herself to think that maybe, _maybe_ she’d been wrong about him not wanting this. That she’d been wrong for trying to convince herself they would only ever be friends.

It was possible she’d been wrong for a very long time.

“What was that for?” she whispered, when they finally drew back from each other, though there were still only a few inches between them.

“You were kissing me as much as I was kissing you,” he returned. “You know…eventually.”

“Harry…” she began, wondering how counter-productive it would be to kiss him again when she was still waiting for a real answer.

“Because I know what you’re feeling,” he said. “Being trapped here. I wanted to make you forget, if just for a moment.”

“Oh,” she said, swallowing around the sudden ache building at the back of her throat. While it wasn’t the _worst_ reason to be kissed, she thought it still came pretty low on the list when compared to what she was hoping.

“And you know why I don’t want you to feel that?” he continued.

She shook her head, still trying overly hard to keep her disappointment from showing. She knew she wasn’t that successful, not when it felt like she was going to cry.

“Because I love you, Caitlin Snow,” he whispered. “I’ve loved you for…I don’t know how long. I can't remember a time when I didn't." He shrugged, a bit helplessly, and the gesture was so foreign on him that she forgot to breathe for a second.

She blinked back tears that were now abruptly for an entirely different reason. It took her a few moments to think she could speak in a somewhat normal tone again. “You should have told me.”

“I just did.”

She hugged him, then, pressing her forehead to his shoulder and when she could finally form a coherent thought she glanced up, saying the only thing that came to mind: “I love you, too.”

They just looked at each other. There was so much she wanted to tell him and she wasn’t sure where to even begin.

They could have stayed that way for one minute or ten before he finally reached a hand out, running his thumb over her cheek. As if he could read her thoughts, he said simply, “I know.”

And she could tell that he did.

**XXXXXX**

For the first time since they’d arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs, there was blessed silence in the room.

Dead silence, in fact.

“I don't understand. Caitlin said –” Sara sounded thoroughly confused when she stopped in mid-sentence. She’d just gotten up, seemed to have forgotten why, and quickly sat down again in the chair she’d almost fallen out of moments earlier. “I didn't know they were a couple.”

“They’re not,” Cisco returned, voice low, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off them. Len thought it was almost like he needed to keep staring to understand what he was seeing.

“They look like a couple to me,” Len said cheerfully, and when he looked around and saw everyone else in the room was also staring at Harry and Caitlin with various expressions of dismay, confusion, and surprise, he decided he enjoyed this development a lot more than he normally would have.

Wally and Jesse came wandering back into the cortex and nearly tripped to a stop when they spotted the couple in the middle of the room. Wally turned around in a confused half-circle. “How long were we gone?”

Jesse said nothing, just pressed a hand to her mouth in surprise, but Leonard could tell from her face that she was more happy than anything else, almost like she’d seen it coming for a long time.

Harry and Caitlin had pulled back and were looking at each other – Len wasn’t sure what they were saying without words, but it was intimate enough that he felt he should look away.

“What do you think, Lance?” he whispered, leaning over the arm of his chair to invade her personal space again. “Can I kiss you whenever I want you to be quiet from now on?”

She’d been watching the couple with a soft smile on her face. It didn’t disappear when she said, “I will stab you, Leonard.”

“Hmm…”

“What?”

“Trying to decide if it’d be worth the stitches.”

“What timeline am I in?” Cisco was muttering, rubbing his eyes. “This can’t be the right one.”

“Thank God you did that when you did,” Len said, directing it at Harry, and clapping solely because he knew it would irritate some of them. “The questions about our impending doom were making me want to knock her out.”

“Leonard,” Sara hissed, which was how he knew the clapping had been worth it.

“What, I’m kidding! I think.”

“You could _try_ to knock me out,” Caitlin said sweetly, but there was an underlying threat there he didn’t miss.

“Oh, I _like_ you,” he said, smirking at her in return.

No one else looked particularly amused at his non-threat, though, if he was going by the disapproving looks being sent his way (he was long-used to that, too).

“I thought this team was supposed to be the _fun_ one?” Len reminded them. “Really not living up to your advertising here.”

“I think it’s fun,” HR said merrily, as he sipped his whiskey, eyes sparkling. “Why do you think I haven’t left yet?”

“Yes, why _haven’t_ you left yet?” Harry challenged.

“I need time, Harrison.”

“You’ve been here over a year and it’s been six months since I moved back.”

“More time than that.”

“You’re staying forever, aren’t you?” Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Is that an invitation?” HR asked, giddily. “Because if so, I accept.”

“We’d love to have you if you want to stay,” Caitlin assured him, earning herself a glare from Cisco.

Harry put an arm around her shoulders and covered her mouth with his hand. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, HR,” he said, as Caitlin laughed and ducked away from him.

“Caitlin’s clearly delirious,” Cisco agreed. “Why else would she have kissed you, Harry?”

“Oh no, Cisco,” Barry began, getting to the harassment right before Leonard could. “Do we need to have a talk about when two people really like each other…?”

“Shut your mouth,” Cisco said, miming a zipping motion to hammer the point home. “Here I thought you and Iris were bad enough.”

“I’m glad we don’t annoy you the same way,” Wally spoke up, arm around Jesse’s waist.

Cisco blinked at him in surprise. “To be honest, I often forget you two are even here. No offense.”

“Gee, none taken,” Jesse said, rolling her eyes.

“Look, I’m thrilled you’ve all figured out your relationships,” Cisco said, disingenuously, “but there are other matters that are more important.” When everyone stared at him blankly, he said emphatically, “Like the lockdown! I don’t want to permanently live at S.T.A.R. Labs. Especially if it means I’ll have to continuously watch you all express your affection for each other.”

“I asked for suggestions,” Harry reminded them. “No one had any.”

Cisco frowned at him. “How do you know we didn’t come up with a dozen good ones while you were kissing Caitlin over there?”

“Did you, Ramon?”

“Well…no,” he said, grudgingly.

“Maybe we’ve been looking at things the wrong way,” Leonard suggested, kicking back in his chair. “What if something _actually_ triggered the lockdown? A threat we’re not aware of?”

“Like what?” Cisco motioned to the live satellite feed of the area around S.T.A.R. Labs that they’d pulled up on several of the screens. “There’s nothing out there.”

“That’s as far as I got in my line of thinking before I was distracted by…” Len winked at Sara, “more important things.” When she grinned widely at him, he knew he'd made the right choice about what to focus on that day.

Harry stared at the screens, and Leonard could almost see the wheels turning in his head, which also meant he saw the moment the other man figured it out – punctuated by slamming a hand down on the desk in front of him.

“I didn’t see it,” he bit out, aggravated. (Len guessed mostly at himself.)

“What?” Cisco inspected the screens again, trying to figure out what he’d missed.

“The shields I used for S.T.A.R. Labs’ new security system – they’re from Earth-2. I used technology that this Earth doesn’t have yet. Technology that won’t be invented here until –”

“– the future,” Leonard finished, in sudden understanding, as he clapped his hands together loudly enough that Cisco winced.

“The Waverider!” Sara exclaimed. “Of course.”

Harry was nodding at her. “This building utilizes the same tech that powers the Waverider. The system has interpreted your ship, or more accurately its weapons system, as a continuous threat. I automatically programmed it the way I would have on Earth-2, thinking if we ever ran into similar ‘impossible’ technology here, we’d be facing actual danger.”

“Mick moved the ship after we got here,” Sara said. “He told me he didn’t want to walk too far while he went about his business in Central City. It’s cloaked in an empty parking lot not even a mile from the building.”

“Since it’s cloaked, we didn’t see it on the satellite images, but the building’s scans still picked up on it. It _told_ us it was there.” Harry pointed at something only Caitlin could see from her vantage point next to him. “I didn’t think anything of it, though, because _I_ knew it wasn’t a threat. I glossed right over how the system must have viewed it.” He was getting angrier the more he spoke. “ _How_ did I miss that?”

“Uh oh, Harry, you starting to slip?” Cisco goaded him. “Could this be the beginning of the end?”

“I didn’t see you noticing it either, Ramon,” Leonard pointed out.

“No, Cisco’s right,” Caitlin told Leonard, causing him to lean back in surprise. “I don’t think Harry has what it takes anymore. Maybe it’s time for him to retire.” She turned to find HR across the room. “You think you’re up for replacing him?”

HR held up his drink, assuring everyone, “It’s what I excel at.”

“I think it’d be much more fun around here with HR in charge of things,” Barry agreed, expression carefully serious.

“I think you mean it’d be chaos around here,” Iris whispered, theatrically. “Still more fun, though.”

“You’re all hilarious,” Harry said, but he was actually smiling again, and Leonard realized that had been his team’s intention the whole time. “You won’t get rid of me that easily.”

Caitlin smiled up at him, threatening, “You better never go anywhere.” He leaned down to kiss her in response.

“Is this going to be our life now?” Cisco muttered, then turned his accusing gaze to Sara and Leonard. “I blame you two for this, coming in here with your weird sexual energy –”

“Our _what_?” Len interrupted.

“I kind of like that description,” Sara said, nudging Len’s chair with her foot.

“It’s giving people ideas,” Cisco complained. “Ideas they never would have had without you two screwing up our dynamic.”

“Maybe they gave _us_ the idea,” Sara said, turning it around on him as he grumbled something unintelligible. “And I’ll tell our team to power down the ship.” She was texting Rip even as she spoke.

“Sorry about your afternoon,” Harry apologized. “After today, my first order of business is to implement a failsafe – a _real_ failsafe – so that nothing like this ever happens again.”

“No harm done,” Sara assured. “It was technically our fault.”

“Speak for yourself,” Len said. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“Can you just mark the Waverider as an exception to the system?” Barry asked. “So it won’t do this again?”

“I could, but what if the ship ever _is_ a threat in the future?” Harry pointed out. “What if they’re hijacked by time pirates?”

“You know about time pirates?” Sara asked, curiously.

Harry sent her a look. “Please. I know about everything.”

“You mean like how you _knew_ the Waverider was going to screw up your fancy security system?” Cisco smirked.

“No one asked for your input, Ramon,” Harry said sternly, though there was a hint of humor in it. That was when the lights on the wall flashed green, apparently in a signal the lockdown was over.

“You two are free to go,” Caitlin confirmed.

Sara pointed to the box near Leonard’s feet. “We should get that back to the ship. The guys have been waiting for over five hours now.”

“Why did we come here again?” Len knew he was perilously close to whining, but couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Food synthesizer, Leonard.”

 _Ohhh right._ “Let’s bring back these parts!” he said, with renewed enthusiasm.

Sara’s phone buzzed and she checked it, frowning slightly before glancing at Harry. “Rip said he has more free time this evening than he thought and he wants to come visit.”

“I highly advise you to reinstate the lockdown,” Len suggested, hitting a bunch of random buttons on the keyboard in front of him.

“Stop!” Cisco cried. “Or do you want to somehow trap us in here again?”

“Don’t say we didn’t warn you,” Len said, before turning to Sara. “Let’s get out of here before Rip arrives and wants to hear all about our day. Besides, I know you probably can’t wait to get back to the ship with me…”

She unsuccessfully tried to hide her smile at that, before turning to the others. “He’s right, we should get going.”

They made the rounds to say their goodbyes. (Leonard didn’t even protest this time, and he tried not to think too hard about why.) When Caitlin and Sara hugged each other, Len faced Harry.

“You two are welcome back here at any time,” Harry told him, shaking Len’s hand. “Even a permanent position if you want. Someday.”

“We’re pretty content where we are,” Leonard said, trying to work out the reasoning behind Harry’s offer.

“Now, sure. But circumstances don’t stay the same forever.” Harry glanced at Caitlin and Sara, conversing nearby, and Len understood everything he wasn’t explicitly saying. Things changed. The things people _wanted_ changed. One day, he and Sara might want a more stable life than traveling through time.

Or maybe he’d finally go insane from dealing with his team on a regular basis and be forced to quit.

As he watched Sara laughing with the others, promising they’d come back and visit soon ( _of course_ she had to include him in her promise), he began to wonder…

What if they were together for a while and decided they wanted a family someday? He’d never really wanted one before, but after knowing her, it was something he could actually picture. And he knew with absolute certainty that it would _have_ to be with her, because he’d never want it with anyone else.

“ _That’s_ what I mean,” Harry said, quietly, and Len snapped his gaze back over to him. He’d almost forgotten he was there, but Harry must have seen where his eyes – and thoughts – had gone.

“I appreciate it,” Len said, surprising even himself with the sincerity of his words. “It’s good to know we have options. However, I’d only consider joining this team if Ramon traded places with me.” (He wasn’t entirely kidding, either.)

“Joining the crew of a spaceship? Count me in!” Cisco didn’t bother trying to hide the fact that he’d been eavesdropping.

“Timeship,” Len corrected.

“A trade for a trade,” Harry said, thoughtfully. “Sounds fair to me.”

“Careful Harry,” Cisco warned. “It almost sounds like you might not want me here.”

“Does it?” Harry asked innocently, carefully not refuting the claim as Cisco scowled at him.

“Harry loves you, Cisco,” Caitlin said, as she came back over with Sara.

“Don't tell him things like that.” Harry mock-glared at her. “He might start believing them.”

“Yeah,” she said smartly. “God forbid he believe the truth.”

Harry seemed about to refute that, but when Caitlin leaned into his side, he merely shook his head, keeping his mouth shut.

Leonard was tempted to make a remark about how easily he'd given in, but one glance at Sara had him reconsidering. He knew when it came to the woman he loved, he did the same damn thing. And that should have made him uncomfortable, uneasy, or even angry…but it didn't. It never had. Not with her.

Sara met his eyes, and he had the distinct feeling that she knew exactly what he was thinking. Then she turned back to the others. “We'll see you guys, probably sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah, see ya around,” Len echoed. “Most of you, at least." He deliberately said the last part to Cisco. “Never know what timeline we might change next…”

“Not cool, man,” Cisco said flatly. “Get out.”

Leonard couldn’t stop his grin as he grabbed the box of supplies and made his way with Sara to the building’s exit.

“See, you didn’t have an absolutely terrible time here,” Sara told him. “Not like you were expecting.” They stepped outside into the fading sunlight, having been trapped for a little over five hours.

“Maybe today wasn’t _quite_ as bad as I thought it’d be,” Leonard allowed.

“I’m going to take that as an admission that you had fun.” She smiled up at him, just this side of too smug. “In fact, I think you might even _love_ them and want to come visit with me every time we happen to be in Central –”

Leonard dropped the box he was holding and kissed her. (He’d been right. It was a _fantastic_ way to get her to stop talking.)

He knew they’d picked the best day to visit S.T.A.R. Labs.


End file.
